New Again
by AoSora.Minami
Summary: Niwa Aki just flew in to the Azumano region, hell-bent on living with her adorable cousin, Niwa Daisuke. But... her friends and forced boyfriend are along for the ride, tormenting the poor girl. What happens when Satoshi finds out about him? Satoshi-x-Aki


**A/N:: This chapter was bleh. I don't like it. Do you? Cuz I sure don't. **

_**New Again**_

**Part One**

"Yes, Mom, I made it safely," a light, musical voice stated playfully.

Such a beautiful view. Sharp green eyes grazed over a spectacular ocean scene. The sun had reached its peak in the sky, casting its golden shine upon the calm blue waves that gently rocked against the blackening stones which held up the walls of a sleepy town.

"You better have. If I hear that any of your stupid band members does anything to you-"

"Ugh. Mom! These idiots don't have the balls to do anything. So you don't have to worry about that. Sheesh. Chill," that gentle voice scolded calmly, still gazing over the ledge and into the cool shining depths. The ocean breeze sent its tendrils of whisking air through layers of black and platinum blond straight hair, whipping the bi-colored strands around effortlessly. "Besides, I have my own apartment. One that they won't have a key to."

"Aki, just make sure they don't do anything. Especially that boy, Jake. I don't trust him."

A soft sigh. "Don't worry. I can handle him. If he does something, you know I won't hesitate to beat his ass." She chuckled lightly, combing a chunk of hair behind an ear, leaning over the ledge on her arms.

"Don't curse." A pause. "Hey, I gotta get back to work. I love you. Bye." The line cut off.

Aki flipped her cell phone shut and quickly shoved it into her jacket pocket, running her fingers through her hair. She wondered why she was here. Sure, her band had decided to fly out with her to visit and live with her cousin, but still she wondered. Here she was, in a normally sleepy town, standing above the water's edge, without a clue as to the real reason why she was here.

She chuckled at her growing annoyance. Why does she really need to worry about it? She'll figure it out soon enough. But, in the mean time, Aki will just have to push the thought away and continue waiting for Niwa Daisuke.

Shifting her weight from one leg to the other, Aki removed her green-eyed gaze from the sloshing waters and placed them on the beautiful baby-blue sky, catching the faintest sounds of light footsteps in her ears. Almost immediately, she dismissed them, though there were many. Three or four, perhaps.

'Why do you bother yourself with such nonsense?'

'What are you talking about, Nana?

'You stare at things and listen to others.'

'I honestly do not know what you're talking about.'

'Freak.'

'Moron.'

Aki sighed once more, straining her ears to analyze the footsteps now. Well, now that Nana brought them up. They were edging closer and closer, stopping every couple of seconds to catch a breath, maybe. Heavy breathing echoed in her ears. Whipping around, intent on seeing who it was that was blowing in her ear, she came nose-to-nose with her redheaded cousin.

"Dai?" she questioned uncertainly. The boy had gotten taller since the last time she saw him, he had to bend over a little to be nose-to-nose with her, and his hair was definitely a deeper shade of crimson. His eyes were an intense bloody scarlet. She couldn't remember them being so… so… striking.

A warm smile inched its way across his face. He always did have the sweetest grins. "Aki!" he exclaimed breathlessly, bringing up two arms around the girl. "How long has it been?" His voice sure hasn't gotten deeper.

If he was with anyone, she couldn't see them. Daisuke's face was sort of in the way. "Two years, right? It sure has been forever!" Aki grinned softly, wrapping her own arms around his waist, slowly but surely.

He chuckled lightly, tightening the embrace for a quick moment, lifted her up a few inches above the ground, and finally set her down to pull away. "I missed you." Always so sweet and friendly.

"Grrr. I missed you too." Aki gave him a bright smile, measuring the ever-growing glow in her favorite cousin's face as she stepped back a foot or two. Soft skin, slightly tanned, illuminated by naïve happiness. It was actually adorable. Well, all Niwas were adorable.

'Narcissist.'

'Bite me~! You know us Niwas are hot. I don't care what you say.'

'What about the Hikaris or Hiwataris? Hmmm?'

After a moment or two of silence, Daisuke decided to speak up. "Hey, you remember Satoshi, right?" A swirling hand gesture towards a boy standing behind him, and the other boy stepped forward. Quiet steps. He must have been who the rest were waiting for if they kept stopping.

'Speak of the devil…'

Aki glanced away from Daisuke, her sharp green gaze now resting on possibly the most attractive blue-haired boy she's ever seen. On contact, her eyes widened slightly. She looked him over several times, searching for a way through that cold and blank façade Hiwatari Satoshi was putting on. Perfectly smooth skin, a neat mess of a blue mop of hair, icy blue eyes, a great figure hiding under those white jeans and black t-shirt… Before she could drool, she realized something was missing. Glasses. Where were his glasses?

"Of course I remember! How could I forget Satoshi? I mean, duh, Dai!" Somehow she made it through that without stuttering. But not without sounding even just a little surprised.

That earned her a nervous chuckle from her cousin.

"But does he remember me?" She raised an eyebrow, giving the two boys a quizzical look. It was a really bad habit. Staring expectantly at people with that whole quirking of the eyebrow thing. A really bad habit. Well, she didn't like looking at people like that, but it came naturally, whether she wanted to or not.

There was a very slight shift in Satoshi's composure as he tried to come up with a decent reply. He opened his mouth, soft lips parting. "You're hard to forget, Aki."

The guy had a voice that could melt anything. But knowing our dear Niwa Aki, she wouldn't ever admit to it. She wasn't one for admitting things. She liked to keep people guessing. That or she hid everything from everyone at all costs. Reasons? Told later.

"Good." A sly grin on her part. "I was hoping it wouldn't be easy." A pause. "Have anyone else to introduce me to for the fiftieth time?"

"No, ma'am!" Daisuke smiled again.

'He's annoying, Aki.'

'Get over it. He's my cousin. I like my cousin. He is nice. Now suck it up, Nana,' she grumbled robotically to her angel.

'Whatever. Where's Dark and Krad?'

'Obviously pushed to the back Satoshi's and Dai's subconscious. Like you. Now shut it. You're starting to get annoying.'

'Why, you little-'

'Love you, too.'

'I didn't-'

Aki shrugged lightly, giving Satoshi a mischievous glare. He glared back coldly. Just like old times. "How's our precious blond angel? Narcissistic as always? Or is he being a moron?"

"Both."

That ticked her off. Not Krad being a moronic narcissist, but the short replies were extremely irritating in her eyes. They left almost no room for conversation and sometimes they didn't make sense. Basically, very annoying anti-conversationalism. "Enough with one-word answers! You know I don't like them!"

"Precisely." Just the way he said it, even if his voice was the sexiest she's ever had the privilege of hearing, was an 'I really want to annoy you because it's amusing and I don't really care how you feel about it.' Very rude, in a polite-ish way. This only irritated her further. And poor little Daisuke may as well have been crouched down, a bucket of popcorn in hand, and being perfectly content with being ignored.

Her eyebrows pulled down into an annoyed 'v' without a moment's hesitation. "Jerk." She crossed her arms, feeling the soft fabric of her light red hoodie rub against her arms as she did so, and glared away at nothing in particular.

"Idiot."

"Dipface."

"Ignoramus."

"Jackass." She knew he didn't like that word.

"Watch your mouth." His tone had changed drastically. From a playful ice to a deadly fire. It was almost scary.

But… not enough to freak her out into actually doing what he said. "No."

"Do it."

"No."

"Yes"

"No."

"Yes."

"Why are you arguing like a child? Aren't you the mature one?" Aki hissed gently, sneaking a quick peek at the intensely attractive blue-haired friend of hers. Let's say he kept his composure well. For being a sexually frustrated, super intelligent, disturbed-by-a-jerk-off-angel of a guy, he controlled himself very well.

That just made her want to tackle him and tickle him until he couldn't breathe for a second. Completely destroy his self-control. Everyone knew it would be funny. Except for those stupid fan girls of his…

"Touché."

Aki stood still a moment, contemplating what to say, and pivoted her body slightly to look over the stone edge again. A darker atmosphere hung thick in the air, disrupting whatever normality that had just been a second ago. How the darkness came to be was entirely beyond her. But… thoughts and memories of a recent to a far away past clouded her mind suddenly, leaving no room for the sense of 'peace' she had felt before. They were almost consuming.

Her fingers clawed the stone softly, the harsh memories battering down on her skull.

One thing she was absolutely positive: these flashbacks and memories and thoughts… only one of them belonged to her. They were each seen through different perspectives; childish, cruel, and beaten points of view.

But one memory stood out from the rest. This one was of combined sights; callow and angry, childish and cruel. Through their pained eyes, she could see a bloodied red-winged angel. Though… she could not feel what they felt.

〚She was tethered down to a chair tightly with blackened chains and bandages wound around her severely injured naked body. No gash or bone-break was treated. Her skinny, petite body shuddered and shook as she drew in icy cold breaths. Quickly did her chest rise and fall. The ribs encaging her heart and lungs were easily visible through the poor girl's skin. She created friction against the black metal chains as she breathed and struggled against them, inevitably causing even more damage to her already dying body.

Red feathers had fallen out and slowly fluttered down to touch the gleaming red surface of the pool of blood encircling her gushing feet, becoming sticky and soon sinking into the deep pool. Her wings were nailed to the wall that her ever weakening wooden chair was pushed up against, all along her hollow bones. Thin streams of blood spilled and smeared through the feathers from each hole in her wings.

A red mop of messy long red hair flowed over her face as she stared down at her boney thighs, nothing distracting her from her pain.

"Nana, why…?" a saddened Dark questioned painfully.

"Why what?" she gurgled angrily as blood dripped from the corner of her lip.

"Why are you like this?" The usually up-beat charmer was shocked and collapsing inside. His friend and near sister was in such a state of agony…

A long moment of harsh breathing. "Why? Because of the shit you put yourselves through! Ever wondered why you never feel much emotional pain or physical pain? You have me to thank for that." Nana's head was still hung, though her eyes remained stuck on the two opposing angels staring back at her with such a deep sadness.

Intense golden sunshine eyes glared over the nearly destroyed frame of Nana's body, flickering from wound to wound. "I didn't realize that we had put you through so much pain, Red."

"Bullshit! You've known ever since the Black Wings- and we- were created! I'm your fucking punching bag. And you have no one to thank but your precious Hikaris!" she hissed, a tear appearing across her cheek, blood trickling down.

"Nana… Please calm down. You'll only make it worse," Dark cooed sadly, taking a slow step forward.

"Stay away from me." The tone in which she spoke in was earth shattering. Pure anger and pain and hate… "There's nothing you can do. Nothing. So don't get your pretty little hopes up."〛

'How come I didn't know, Nana…?'

No answer.

"Hello~! Earth to Aki!" chuckled an adorable Daisuke, his long fingers waving around in the green-eyed beauty's scenic view. For a moment, she couldn't notice it, thinking intently about what had happened to her angel.

Then a snap and she must have jumped twelve feet in the air. "What the hell, Dai!" she howled, plummeting back down on her Draven-clad feet. Straightening herself, she ran her hand down her arms and short black skirt, dusting off some imaginary dust that must have stuck itself to her clothes. And she was embarrassed. Very. To the point of a hot face and a scarlet blush.

Satoshi sighed quietly, mostly out of boredom. Well, better get to being analytical and assholeish. His attention was indirectly drawn to the obviously disturbed girl in front of him. There was something a little off. Before she nodded off into space, she was normal. Well, normal for her. It took her nearly no time at all to build up a wall of thick upset. Anyone, stupid or not, could easily see that. But, what could have gotten under her skin in such a short amount of time? Nothing about that seemed right. His friend wasn't so easily bothered- at least, not to his knowledge.

Knowing Aki, it was a hopeless attempt to figure out what had her so painfully upset. She was a stubborn and easily annoyed girl nowadays, that much was apparent, as noted. He hadn't seen her in at least a year and a half, and she's changed so much. Never did she used to hide her emotions, nor did she burrow away her problems or sudden visions. That has obviously reversed. She's trying desperately to regain a composure she's incapable of completely regaining.

What was bothering her?

"Satoshi, why are you brooding?" Aki questioned, a fake wonder leaking into her gentle voice.

The boy shook his head slightly, saving his thoughts for some other instance that they'd be useful. "Aki, have you already been to your apartment?"

At his simple sentence, she had an almost comically animated look decorating her face. Puffing her lips out, she gave him an irritated glare. "Why does everyone assume I have a damn apartment?" Aki growled, crossing her arms over her chest. This was so… inappropriately timed. "And yes, I have. Why?"

"Let me walk you home…" he started, noticing the growing confusion glow about her face, "like I used to." And her expression fell from that typical befuddlement to a crestfallen 'duh'.

Her eyebrow twitched.

'Well, that wasn't what I was expecting. Whatever.'

"Okay. Like you used to. Hehe. Who knows? Maybe having you around will get Jake to quit harassing me the way he does. Heh," the all-too horrible at scheming girl chimed suspiciously. In all actuality, she was going to take advantage of this opportunity.

A hand popped up into her sight. "Hey! What about me?"

"What about you, Dai?" Satoshi and Aki retorted flatly, hoping their friend got the message. If he didn't, well, then they're in for tears. Besides that, the two flinched at the synchronicity between the sentence they spoke. And, of course, it was weird and very annoying.

"Don't talk at the same time as me!"

"Why not?"

"Because it's-"

"Honestly, I see no problem." He pushed his non-existent glasses up his nose, shifting his weight to stand more comfortably.

"You damn liar!" She shot out a finger to point at him with an aggravated glare, an arm's length away.

"What do I have to lie about?"

"….."

"Exactly."

"Grrr! Dai, go home! Me and Satoshi are going to do the same." Aki rubbed her temples with the heels of her hands, trying as hard as possible not to blow up.

She could sense his hesitation. An understanding smile spread like butter across her cousin's face after a moment as she glanced up at him. Those shining white teeth and lightly shut crimson eyes. Signature smile of his. It was disarming. The damn charmer!

"Play nice. See yah later, guys." With that, he turned and bounced away. Who knew that he could be so easily excluded from the events soon to follow, unbeknownst to the couple themselves?

Two simultaneous sighs. Two in-sync anime veins. Aki was really beginning to dislike Satoshi.

"What's the deal, Aki?" There was something different about the tone of his voice. She couldn't figure out if it was angry or serious. The blue-haired prodigy could be confusing in terms of tone and emotion at times.

A shrug. "Depends on what you mean."

Satoshi frowned. "I mean why are you so fake?" That most likely gave the girl the wrong idea.

"Fake? Oh, so now I'm fake? Whatever happened to idiot? I was tons more comfortable with that!"

Yep. She definitely took it the wrong way. Why she did escapes him, but at least she's responding.

"I didn't mean it like that. I-"

"Then what the hell did you mean then?"

Aki was really laying into him. Her defenses were up, completely turning her into a stubborn shell. It was wrong. She was not being nice about anything that she said to him, he understood. He was treading on thin ice right now. But he needed to get her to talk about whatever it was that was bothering her. The sudden shock of negative energy that tore through the atmosphere ten minutes ago was something that he really didn't want to worry about all the time. Not if it was going to be a regular thing. He's got enough on his plate as it is; a cruel and irritating blond angel, his duties as the commander in the police force to catch Dark, passing his classes, dealing with Harada Risa…

There came an angry, and defensive, growl before he could come up with another way to rephrase what he was saying. "Let me know when you know what you really mean!" the normally gentle girl hissed, storming away.

'How am I fake?'

'I don't think he meant that.'

'Now you talk to me!'

'You're such a difficult kid.'

'And you're bipolar!' She kept stamping off, paying little heed to her surroundings. All that really mattered was how to get rid of her anger.

That vision of Nana and Dark and Krad… is what caused her anger to flare, she concluded. Regardless of the cause, it was obvious that the rage would continue for as long as she dwelled on it. And knowing our little Aki, it would take a while for it to wear off. It wasn't just anger though. Sadness and sympathy.

"Aki!" Satoshi howled after the frustrated girl, running after his friend.


End file.
